... IT is clear from the beginning that Alexander Korda's new version of Anna Karenina has an admirable purpose: to bring Tolstoy's novel to the screen as meticulously as may be within the limits of theatre-time and film con vention, and to build up a sense of a period and a society which conditioned the tragedy. This is something new. In all the earlier Hollywood versions, Anna Karenina was ...

... By C. A. Leieune VICE VERSA.-- I am relieved to learn from my synopsis of Vice Versa that Peter Ustinov, that gifted handyman who can act, produce, direct, write, mimic any given type in half-a-dozen languages and, for all I know, make animal noises, is now twenty-six years of age. That will not deter his employers from referring to him as brilliant, but it may discourage them from adding ...

... THIS isn't the great Sphinx. This is only a dear little kitten of a Sphinx. This is my pet Sphinx, says Cleopatra to the Roman stranger in Shaw's play. This isn't a great film. This is only a dear little kitten of a film. This is my pet film, I felt like saying when came out of the Academy Theatre after watching 'L'Ange de la Nuit.' It is a long time since I lave been so touched and ...

... . By Bethell Jones. (Allen and Unwin 9s.) Why is it that frank and daring sex novels about the middle-classes are so often in bad taste, whereas similar stories of the old aristocracy or the new proletariat so rarely seem offensive This one is in the former class. R..C.-C. ...

... The L 'tie of Frightened Philistines. By James barrel!. (Koutledge 12s. 6d.) writ nkerous essays, chiefly on literary Subjev s, by the author of Studs Lonigan. a ...

... Witci ft and Magic of Africa. By Frederick aigh. (Richard JLesley 12s. 6d.) 1 Si aid hnd it easier to accept Mr. Kaigh s italiciv J assurance that he had seen a young mail a girl turn into jackals before his eyes, if he d not show himself so susceptible to travel s' tales about Madagascar, an island I hap; a to know. But his book is a pleasant mixtuit of erudition and entertainment which is ...

... ■3 . T By Robin Estridge. (Peter Davies 8s. 6d.) I A straight unpretentious story, with authentic dialogue which never descends to dialect. Sally, the licensee, is a grand character, por trayed without maudlin sentiment, but with a good deal of honest feeling. I recommend it strongly to anyone who likes, as I do, to have the conversation of a novel punctuated with orders across the bar. -if- ...

... persuaded Noel Coward that he was a heaven-sent revue ir-t-A writer By Collie Knox BEHOLD, there is not one Cochran but many Cochrans-- all sizzling within the body (Incorporated) of one Showman, whose failures have been more magnificent, and much more expensive, than the successes of lesser beings. The successes of Charles B. Cochran (B for Blake) had for years thrown the traffic round ...

... By John Courtenay THE HIDDEN YEARS (Fortune) is a story of forbidden friendships whose author, Travers Otway, has sworn by the oaths of judgment and reason. That is to say, Harlston is a credible school, and this particular case- history a plausible business, though I still find the doings in the common-room-- where the beaks assemble-- more plausible than those in the studies (men only) ...

... . Compiled by Russell Palme (Skelton Robinson 18s.) From page 137 of this book I learn that Cecil James the Bassoonist is the son of Wilfrid James the distinguished bassoonist, and the nephew of E. F. James and Frank G. James, J respectively eminent bassoonist and trur.i- 2 peter, while he married Natalie Caine, tie oboist. Small wonder that he has been most active in the world of chamber ...

... ALL playgoers salute Gladys Cooper on her return to the London stage (Criterion Theatre) after a long absence. But she has chosen a curious part. The frustrated wife who makes a misery of her existence in the vicarage of Oldchurch-in-the-Vale, with a husband who is halfway between an idiot and a saint-- this is not the sort of thing in which Miss Cooper is remembered. Well and loyally as ...

... OUR BOOKSHELF Rupert Croft-Cooke THE PURPLE PLAIN. --In the chaos of present- day criticism, when opinions seem to be more sharply divided than ever before, there are few things about which I find myself feeling absolute certainty. One of these is the quality of Mr. H. E. Bates's best work. Whatever a good writer is, he is one. Whether he is as good a novelist is another matter. Take his ...